Today Alana gets to be a much darker character than usual. Although the version of Macbeth that this costume is from is probably the worst I’ve ever seen, I like the costume. It is simple almost to the point of being stark, which sort of makes the heavy crown stand out all the more. And that seems very appropriate for the woman who was willing to do anything to be queen. This gown was dark, wine red in the movie with a red-toned brown overdress and heavy gold accents (belt, chain and crown). The actress (or maybe the director, or both) was dreadful, but the costume seemed perfect. Lady Macbeth is actually not one of the characters that I ever really wanted to play, although she is undoubtedly an amazing one. I was always more drawn to other characters in that play – Macduff, who loses his family, Banquo, who is murdered for no real reason, and the witches, who are clearly acting for some purpose, but who knows what it might be? I actually did play one of the witches, which was fun, along with quite a few other small roles (a murderer, Banquo’s son Fleance, the doctor attending Lady Macbeth, etc.).

Alana’s wardrobe can be found on her page. I’ll be starting a new doll next!

This is Carmella’s very last outfit! It’s Goldilocks from Faerie Tale Theatre. I liked this costume a lot, actually, because it is so simple. Goldilocks is romping through the woods in her story and climbs all over furniture and all sorts of things, and yet we always see her in frilly dresses completely not suited to such play. This feels like a play outfit, an outfit that’s maybe not supposed to get muddy, but one that it’s not going to be a big deal if it does either. Just because a girl has golden curls doesn’t mean she’s a pretty, lacy porcelain doll. I mean, think about all the trouble that little girl gets into! She walks into someone else’s house, eats their food, breaks their furniture and sleeps in their beds! This is not exactly a well-mannered little girl. She might have some kind of excuse for the food part if she was starving, but we always see a plump, rosy little princess in pink frills! I liked this blue outfit made for running and playing much better. It fits with a little girl who isn’t so good behaving and is playing outside when the trouble happens.

Carmella and her entire wardrobe can be found on her page. She is now as complete as I currently intend to make her, although I reserve the right to return to her and draw her more clothes at some point if I feel like it again. I’ve got a new doll with a whole new theme to start sharing here next week!

This is Alana’s first costume from Faerie Tale Theatre, although she will have others. This is the Miller’s Daughter’s peasant dress from Rumpelstiltskin. The entire dress, both overdress and underdress, were the same shade of pale green and appeared to be made of some kind of linen. She wore a ribbon necklace that was tucked under the neck of the dress until she pulled it out to trade it to Rumpelstiltskin (I’ve included it in the outfit). This was a pretty good version of the story, although I found the magical animals that helped the Miller’s Daughter out a little odd. This was actually one of my favorite fairy tales as a child and I liked it dark (among my other favorite stories were The Pied Piper and the version of Cinderella where the stepsisters cut parts of their feet off and I have no real explanation for this – I was as well adjusted as the next kid). I liked the versions where Rumpelstiltskin gets his foot stuck in the floor and has to rip off his leg or gets pulled down into Hell at the end. Edward Gorey illustrated a version of it (I think with the Hell ending) that was a particular favorite when I was little. I actually tracked it down online and bought myself a copy so that I have one now because I liked it so much. It’s good and creepy!

This dress and all of Alana’s other outfits can be found along with the doll herself on her page. She’s got a gown fit for a queen coming up next.

Several years back Hallmark made a movie version of the Snow White story called Snow White: The Fairest of Them All. It wasn’t an amazing movie, but it had some good acting and some strange things that are rather memorable (like dwarfs that can summon a rainbow Care Bear-style). I wasn’t enthralled with any of the queen’s costumes, although it’s clear that much thought was put into how she should dress. I did, however, very much like the one dress that Snow White wore through pretty much the entire movie (she just removed the jacket or added different collars as the scene dictated). The dress underneath is a creamy color and the jacket was a rich red velvet. Little snowflakes peppered the trim and the whole thing just burst with personality. It did look kind of heavy, but so did everyone else’s costumes, so that only makes sense, I suppose. Anyway, I liked it enough to draw it for Serena.

This is Serena’s last outfit. It’s possible that I will return to draw more for her at some point in the future, but I have no specific plans to do so right now. The doll and all of her outfits can be found on her page. Carmella has one more outfit and then she will be effectively finished as well. Alana has quite a few more outfits, so she’s not going anywhere for a while. I do have a new project I’ve been working on, though, so there will be a new paper doll soon!

The magic of Netflix streaming videos means that I’ve been watching a lot of random television shows and movies lately while I sew and work on various projects (movies make the tedious parts of costuming go so much faster). One of the shows I’ve been watching bits and pieces of is Murder, She Wrote, which I watched all the time with my mom and grandmother when I was a kid. In many ways it has actually held up surprisingly well. In some ways it has not, but few shows don’t have that problem. I decided one day to draw one of Jessica Fletcher’s characteristic suits for Alana. This one came from a pretty typical episode where Mrs. Fletcher is visiting the ostentatious mansion of one of her many, many random famous/rich friends while all of their family is gathered together and someone is murdered. Jessica helpfully solves the mystery for the rather bumbling local sheriff and his assistant who are ready to accuse everyone in the house and they prove she’s right by setting a trap for the killer (why did they always set a trap and how did that not backfire on her even once?). Like I said, it was a pretty typical episode!

Alana’s wardrobe has gotten pretty varied, but she still has quite a few outfits to add to it! You can find her and all of her clothing on her page.

This outfit is from the comic Runaways, which is one of the very few Marvel comics that I enjoy, and belongs to Molly. Being the youngest in the group by a few years, Molly’s sense of fashion is usually pretty far different from everyone else’s. I love how much fun her outfits are, though. They’re always colorful and happy, even if she isn’t always so cheerful. Molly is the metahuman in the group (think X-Men kind of metahuman). She may look small, but she has metahuman strength and can beat up just about anyone they face, and take the hits to match (that part makes her grumpy, though). She hates being petted and sheltered, although she’s used to it happening, since her (evil) parents treated her that way and her companions have a tendency to it sometimes as well. But she’s got spirit and spunk and tops it off with fun hats that often have bunny ears, so what’s not to love? Besides, she has way less drama than everyone else! I thought Carmella was lacking a superheroine costume, considering her friends both have several, and Molly seemed like an obvious choice!

Carmella and her wardrobe can be found on her page. She and Serena each have one outfit left and then I think I’ll move on to something else! Alana has quite a few outfits remaining, so she’ll be getting updates for a while.

This is the superhero costume for a hero called Fahrenheit (hint: flame powers!) from a comic called Stormwatch: Post Human Division. The few issues of the comic I read were pretty dreadful and I really don’t recommend them. There’s little internal consistency and everything feels really gimmicky, all wrapped up in mediocre writing and highly variable art. So why did I draw this costume? I was in the mood to draw shoulder armor. I considered some World of Warcraft armor, but in general the girl armor in all the promo art is too not-covering for my tastes (the armor in the actual game suffers from this problem a little, but not *nearly* as badly as the promo art would suggest). See, if I’m going to be getting attacked by things with swords and axes (or even just claws and teeth), I don’t want my tummy, breasts, arms and legs essentially naked. That’s just *asking* for them to be stabbed or chopped off, no matter how shiny the shoulder plates above them are. I’ve discussed this issue pretty extensively before. Anyway, so I went looking for shoulder plates and remembered this costume. It’s a little different and was kind of fun to draw, even if I don’t really remember anything about the woman wearing it other than that her powers were somehow fire-based and she was way too melodramatic.

Alana’s entire wardrobe can be found with the lovely lady herself on her page. She’s got some modern clothes coming up. She actually has quite a few costumes left, while Selena and Carmella don’t. I haven’t decided if I should draw more for the two of them to help them catch up a little or if I should move on to something else and just finish these three out with what they’ve already got. Anyone have any preferences? I do have some ideas for some new dolls, but these ones are fun too.

I finally have a new outfit for Carmella! This is yet another costume from Faerie Tale Theatre. This time Carmella gets the really adorable German-inspired Gretel costume from “Hansel and Gretel”. I enjoyed this particular retelling of “Hansel and Gretel”, although I’d love to see someone include the journey back in a movie or television adaption of the story sometime. If you read the story as the Grimm Brothers retold it, there is a whole extra leg to the journey at the end where the kids return home. Gretel basically does everything – she get animals to help them and she finds their way. Hansel’s only plan was the bread-crumbs and we all know how well that worked out. But his clever sister saves them and gets them home to their loving father. For some reason, the story is always sort of cut off after the witch dies. I love this return journey, though. It’s probably my favorite part of the story! Oh well.

This dress and Carmella’s other outfits can all be found on her page along with the doll herself. Carmella and Serena each only have a few outfits left (Alana has quite a few). I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to draw more for them or if I’m going to leave their wardrobes as they are and move on to a new doll or two. Does anyone else have any preferences?

I realize it’s way past Christmas, but sometimes that’s how it goes with art. This is a costume that I noticed from a really awful movie I watched on Netflix streaming while I wasn’t feeling good called Bernard and the Genie. It’s really a particularly dreadful movie and I absolutely DO NOT recommend it. But there was a girl in it who was the Santa’s assistant (moving the kids through the line and such) for one of those Santas you can go visit where kids stand in line and tell him what they want and get a candy cane. Normally in movies the girls in that particular job (and it’s always girls, for some reason) are dressed in elf costumes, but for some reason this one was in this Santa outfit. I liked it because it was sort of a classier take on the “sexy Santa” idea, with the high boots and fitted jacket. I actually really like this design, whereas I usually find most “sexy Santa” outfits to be incredibly trashy. It stuck with me and I liked it enough to draw it for Alana. Even paper dolls need some holiday fun, after all!

This outfit can be found on Alana’s page along with the doll herself and all the rest of her incredibly random wardrobe. I’m thinking of starting a new doll soon with a definite theme, since these three are kind of random. I may continue them as well (at least for a little while), but this way I’d have something new to work on as well.

This is yet another Faerie Tale Theatre costume for Serena. This one is from Little Red Riding Hood. Her name was Mary in the episode and she was a very appealing character. She was kind of naive, as Red Riding Hoods usually are, but it made sense because her parents were super overprotective and not very bright. I loved her grandmother, though. I almost drew one of the grandmother’s dresses for Alana instead of Red Riding Hood herself because she was so entertaining, but for this story you just have to have the title character. For the paper doll outfit you need to cut out the area inside the hood so that you can see Serena’s face. The original dress was dark yellow and, of course, the cape is supposed to be bright, cherry red.

All of Serena’s costumes can be found with the doll herself on her page. She’s got a more modern outfit coming up and then I’ve got something for Carmella, who has been somewhat neglected for a while.